Crossing is a bluffing/party game. You play as fairy folk trying to claim life stones or filch them off other players. The aim of the game is to collect and make sets of these life stones.

At the start of the game, everyone picks a character card and places it in front of them. Then a number of mushroom tiles are placed in the centre of the table equal to the number of players less one. Two life stones are added to each mushroom tile from the bag and you are ready to go.

Typical set up for three players.

David: I really like the character cards the artwork is fantastic. Setting up the game is very easy and the rules are very simple to teach. We never had to check back to the rules once after reading them.

The six character cards.

On the first turn, you count to 3 and everyone points at a mushroom tile. If you are the only player to point to a mushroom tile you can take the life stones and put them on your character card.

If more than one person points to the mushroom tile you get nothing. After the first turn, you can point to another player’s character card instead of a mushroom and steal their life stones.

After the stones have been taken by the players a stone is added from the bag to any mushroom tile with stones already on it. Empty mushroom tiles get two stones.

Play continues until the bag is empty and this signals the last round.

Mike: Stealing or Filching as the game prefers to call it, from other players can be a worthwhile move. Players can protect their stash of stones by placing their hand on their character card instead of pointing. This protects your stones and you can take them off your card and place them to the side. They are now safe but this move comes at a price as by banking your stones you can’t play in the next turn.

This adds a nice amount of strategy and a bit of push your luck to the game. Do you feel lucky and continue to take from the centre? Do you play safe but lose a turn and miss a chance to gain more stones?

The rules clearly say you can talk between counting and this can add a nice bit of bluffing and devious play. Any deals you make are not binding - those that have played Sheriff of Nottingham will know the deal here.

At the end of the game, everyone counts up their gems and get 5 points for each set of three (blue, orange and red). 2 points are given for each white gem and 1 point for each leftover gem that can’t make a set.

This would give you a score of 22 points.

David: Yeah, everyone kept stealing my gems but then again I did have a big collection on my tile. We only played this with 3 players I would love to see how it plays with 6 as it would be a lot more chaotic.

Mike: Yes I would like to see how this plays in a bigger group. The next group game session we are in we will get this out instead of resistance.

As David already mentioned the artwork is fantastic. The price of this game is towards the higher end for a filler. Don’t let that put you off too much though as the components are of a very high quality. If you compare it to the game called “The Game” of a similar price point and that is just a deck of cards.

Seriously look at these components and artwork.

Do we recommend it?

Yes from both of us. This is a great game to introduce younger gamers to the bluffing mechanic. This game works really well with 3 players and is not complicated enough to cause issues when more players are added. It has a really family friendly theme and feel to the game which might change after a few turns of stealing gems from your nearest and dearest.